In eucaryote, it has been known that fucosylated sugar chains are involved in various physiological and pathological processes including angiogenesis, reproduction, cell adhesion, inflammation and tumor metastasis (see Non-patent Literature 1). In addition, a number of glycoprotein tumor markers including CA19-9 and SLX are known to be generated by fucosylation of sugar chains (see Non-patent Literature 2). Thus, because fucosylated sugar chains have a significant implication in organisms, if a substance such as a drug can be specifically delivered to cells producing fucosylated sugar chains, then the above-mentioned various phenomena can be controlled. However, to date there has been no report indicating the success of such an attempt.
Furthermore, since fucosylation is catalyzed by a kind of glycosyltransferase, i.e., fucosyltransferase (FUT), one may imagine targeting a fucosyltransferase of fucosylated sugar chain-producing cells as a target molecule; however, this enzyme is a membrane-bound protein localized at regions from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus, and is not present on the cell surface; accordingly, fucosyltransferases cannot be used as a direct target molecule. Consequently, a technology to deliver a substance such as a drug specifically to fucosylated sugar chain-producing cells has not been developed to date.